


Local Cryptid

by cerbreus



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, cryptid AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-03 01:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10956801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerbreus/pseuds/cerbreus
Summary: After an encounter with a mystery creature while filming his short horror film, Gabriel Reyes soon finds himself in the middle of what feels like a conspiracy theorist's fever dream. It's not every day you discover the secrets behind your local cryptid.





	Local Cryptid

**Author's Note:**

> The tags, and rating will update with each chapter. This is my first ever fic, so be patient with me as I upload, chapters may take a bit. Beta'd by Gizah (thank you so much!)

 

 

“So we're gonna pan in from this direction, and you focus on me running into these propane things ok?” Gabriel emphasizes his directions with his hands, hard to see in the darkness. It's overcast, which isn't perfect for filming like this, but sure sets the mood.

 

“That's what they're called Gabe? Propane things?” Sombra murmurs, as he goes through the directions of what he wants her to capture on video.

 

“Well I don't know what they're called Som, and you don't either I'm sure.” He grumbles, thrown off a little now. “Anyway, let's start this so I can edit it for tomorrow.”

 

They're about 2 hours into a project that's due as his final for his photography class. He likely should have started on it sooner, it being the night before it's due and all. But he hasn't really had an idea, nor a filming location for the project until this weekend anyway. He jogs out to the starting shot, turning the flashlight on his phone so that he can be seen in the pervasive darkness. He'd really been hoping for a clear night, but it had turned out so overcast he can barely see his hands when they walk between the sparse lights of this small college town. 

 

Sombra gives him the go ahead. He starts jogging towards her, then takes a turn into the rows of the propane tanks. He's jogging down the line when he stumbles into one of the tanks that's been tipped over, and has to maneuver his way around it without dropping his phone in the mud. Once he's reached the end of the row, a bit of a ways away from where sombra stands, he turns off his phone flashlight to give the effect of him disappearing, or so he hopes.

 

He's standing there waiting for Sombra to tell him it's ok to head back, when he hears the sharp crack of a stick to his immediate left. He freezes in place, some instinctual anxiety amping up as he stands there sightless between the rows of propane tanks. He barely makes out the sound of something brushing up against metal, and then feels fur skim across the back of his hand. The overcast sky sheds no light on whatever creature is next to him, and he tries to quell his fear by thinking ‘ok maybe it’s just a rabbit. Or a dog. You know, nothing harmless.’

 

“Gabe, you can turn your light on now and head back! I think we got it.” Sombra calls out to him.

 

He fumbles and drops his phone with the sudden noise. His heart’s in his throat, but after a few seconds without getting bitten or something, he figures he’s nothing to fear. Whatever animal was wandering in the rows with him was scared off by sombra. He squats down on the soft, peaty ground looking for his phone, and after several slightly damp passes over the ground he finds it. Gabe wipes his hands on his jeans as he stands back up, then he turns on his phone flashlight again.

 

He shines the light over where he’d been standing, and where he felt whatever animal it was next to him. He doesn’t see anything there, or down the row it must've gone down, but he does see some dog tracks in the peaty soil. Gabe huffs with surprise before heading back to sombra, relieved that it was probably just one of the strays wandering around the town.

 

“Hey, so while I was standing out there I think one of the strays around here got curious and came over.” He says as he walks into the dim light where Sombra is. She’s looking at the camera and what they’ve just filmed, and looks up with a laugh. 

 

“I probably scared it off with my shouting, huh?” 

 

“Probably. You scared me into dropping my phone, that’s for sure.” Gabe chuckles, checking his phone for any mud or scrapes.

 

“What can I say, my voice projects.” She grins, and hands over his camera. “So take a look for yourself, it’s a little dark but I think it’s it will work for the assignment.”

 

“Yeah that’ll do just fine. Let's call it a night.” Gabe mumbles after a brief look at the 17 seconds worth of film. He walks over to where he set his gear, and carefully packs up the camera before shoving it into his backpack. He gives one last look at the propane tanks, slinging his backpack onto his shoulders. He doesn’t see any more than he had with the flashlight on, in the dim light. “We should come back tomorrow and see if we can find the stray, it couldn’t hurt to make sure it’s ok.”

 

Sombra nods in agreement, and they head on down the road. 

 

++++++++++

 

A thorough search of the area where he’d been filming the night before, and in the surrounding industrial buildings, yields no more evidence of the stray.  He finds the paw prints again, and he’s surprised that he didn’t notice how large they’d been. The pawprint is nearly as large as the span of his hand.

 

“Jesus Som, I’m not sure it was a stray dog after all.” He mumbles, pulling out his phone to take a quick snap of it. “This is a pretty big paw print for the stray dogs I see around here.”

 

“Maybe it’s some of the local wildlife? I mean there  _ are _ bears here.” Sombra leans down to look at the pawprints, placing her hand over top of them. The pawprint dwarfs her hand, bigger even than the splay of her fingers over it, even if she does have pretty small hands to begin with. 

 

“Sombra, that’s not a bear print at all.” Gabriel rolls his eyes a little bit. “Besides, bears probably don’t venture this close to town.”

 

“Well I mean the only other possibilities for a pawprint that big is… Wolf? Local cryptid?” Sombra finishes with a scoff, standing back up and looking around. “I mean we are definitely in sasquatch territory, you never know, he might be a fan of amateur horror films.” 

 

“First of all, Sasquatch isn’t real, and second of all, if Sasquatch  _ did  _ like or even watch movies… I’m pretty sure he’d be a rom-com man.” Gabe says in a perfectly monotone voice.

 

Sombra dissolves into laughter at the comment, slapping Gabriel’s shoulder as she passes him to walk down the row. He cracks a smile as well, following her through of the rows of propane tanks.

 

“You don’t know that! He could totally be into obscure slasher films, or like, cloverfield.” 

 

“Hey just because he’s a lumbering, massive-footed giant doesn’t mean he can’t love all that cheesy stuff.”

 

“Are you only defending this because  _ you _ like rom-coms, gabe?” She chuckles a little.

 

“Hey I never said that!” Gabriel raises his hands, pretending to be outraged. “I’m just  _ saying,  _ I think he’d like sappy love stories.”

 

They continue down the row, keeping tight to the sides of the tanks so they don’t ruin the enormous paw prints their late night visitor left. Gabriel has rarely seen a dog that large before, and he’s yet to see any great danes or st. Bernard dogs running around the town. ‘It’s way too small a town for an animal like that to go unnoticed.’ Gabriel thinks to himself as they reach the end of the row. The pawprints are harder to make out now as they make it onto higher ground, and away from the marsh-like soil that houses the massive propane tanks. 

 

“Maybe we can try and lure it out with food?” Sombra asks, squinting at the disrupted soil. “I don’t suppose we’ll find it like this, there’s too much brush where the prints are headed.”

 

Gabriel shrugs. “Are you sure we want to lure out an animal that big? If it is a stray, and it’s feral, it might be pretty dangerous.” 

 

“Or it could be a bear. Or it could be sasquatch. Don’t you wanna be the man that discovers sasquatch?” She grins mischievously at him. 

 

“Do you actually believe sasquatch exists Som? Is that what this is about?” Gabriel rolls his eyes and continues following the rest of the tracks, leading them both into grassy brush. The tracks might be nigh impossible to spot now, but the trail of bent grass is just as telling. 

 

“Well I don’t know, but those rumors and sightings have to come from somewhere, right?” 

 

“I highly doubt there is a what, 10 foot tall, hairy, improbably large footed thing roaming around in the forests of northern America.” Gabe gives her a disbelieving look. “All those sightings are probably just from some drunk college students.” 

 

“What, do you not believe in aliens either? There’s gotta be stuff out there we don’t know about.” Sombra shrugs, waving her hand up in the general direction of the sky. 

 

“Well aliens are more probable than stuff like the Jersey Devil or I don’t know.. Ogopogo?” Gabe shrugs as well. “The universe is vast, the forests of the United States are not.”

 

They come to a stop at the edge of the grasses, the trail officially disappearing as they meet the edge of the forest. There is no broken grass to lead the way, and the forest floor offers nothing but dry soil and pine needles on the patchy grass. Gabriel begins to suspect even more so that this may not be a stray dog. The dogs in the small town, as sparse as they are, always tended to stay close to the town itself- where food and trash are easy to find. Gabe turns around, sighing in disappointment. 

 

“Well it looks like our unsuccessful search comes to an end. Whatever it is, we’re not nearly good enough at tracking to find it.” He starts to head back the way they came, through the grass. They’ve spent an hour looking for the animal, no more time would really turn up anything else about it. 

 

“Maybe we should come back at night again, see if it’s a frequent visitor of this area?” Sombra jogs a little to catch up, before walking side by side next to Gabe. “Now that we’ve started looking i’m brimming with curiosity and at least $5 to spare for some food.”

 

“Sombra.. I don’t think we’re going to be able to lure it in. It was probably chance that anything was here at all.” 

 

“Hey, exams are almost done, what do you even think you’re gonna spend all that spare time on?” Sombra bounces in front of him and  turns around, facing him as she walks. She’s got that glint in her eye, the one that got them on the roof of all the different campus buildings this year. 

 

“I don’t know, work on my unsuccessful love life? Work on pieces I can use in my portfolio?” 

 

Sombra rolls her eyes and turns back around, clearly thoroughly fed up with his stubbornness to give up the search she’s suddenly invested in. “I don’t think your love life is going anywhere, buddy. And you already have like, 3 films and loads of digital art to use in your portfolio. A couple days a week getting some good forest air might do you well.”

 

“Hey you don’t know that, maybe I’ll meet the love of my life on okcupid..” Gabe grumbled sullenly, crossing his arms over his chest. 

 

“Have you even gotten a date on that yet, or has it all been unsuccessful text messages?” Sombra looks back with a raised eyebrow, she knows the answer to her question. It might have well have been rhetorical. Gabe just faux sulks a little more, furrowed brows telling her it’s time she needs to drop the subject. 

 

“Ok fine, fine. But still, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be outside more. You spend so much time cooped up in your room. Plus, the hiking and walking would help you maintain your killer legs, right?”

 

“That’s how you’re gonna do this? Convincing me I need to spend  _ more _ time working out?” Gabe chuckles a little. “I already go to the gym about as much time as you spend in computer labs.”

 

“Give it up Gabe, with that ‘healthy goth’ routine you’ve had since highschool I don’t think you’ll fool anyone.” She chuckles knowingly. 

 

“Fine, fine. You got me. Plus somebody’s gotta chaperone you. I’m dragging everyone along though, and I’ll tell them exactly who to blame for the exercise…”

 

“Hey! That’s not fair, you know how much Jesse and Fareeha don’t like hiking! I don’t want their complaints directed at me.” Gabe just shrugs noncommittally.

 

“That’s the price to pay for this particular curiosity.”

 

++++++++++  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! ♥
> 
> Edit: Hey sorry it's been... Over a year since I wrote this. /Sweats
> 
> I'm back to make minor edits and say the next couple of chapters are actually on the way! Probably in about 2 weeks, when I'm done with work. 
> 
> Thank you for all the views and kudos' and comments! I really appreciate it, and thanks for hanging in there with my bad update schedule. I promise it'll get better! <3


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